The European Union

So acute is the crisis facing May’s government that sections of the ruling class and the state apparatus are factoring in the possibility that a general election might be unavoidable, and that a Corbyn government is becoming a distinct possibility.

In the conflict over the Italian budget, the EU Commission takes the side of the banks, stock exchanges and credit agencies, while the government pursues a course of militarism and attacks on immigrants and workers.

While framed around Brexit, the underlying impulse of the joint statement between the union federations and business groups is the developing trade war between the United States and the European Union.

Despite stating recently that he was in favour of “a customs union” with the EU, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn has stopped short of endorsing membership of the Single European Market and a second referendum.

The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party) demands the publication of all secret protocols and lists of participants in the coalition talks, which have laid the basis for the coming to power of the most right-wing government since the downfall of the Nazis.

The conference vote on Brexit took on surreal elements, being held on the same day that it was announced that the beginning of a fourth round of talks between the UK and the EU again broke up without agreement.